David Simon & David Chang

David Simon is a journalist, author, and the creator of the television shows The Wire, Homicide, and most recently, Treme. As a crime reporter at The Baltimore Sun, Simon authored countless articles and two books, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets and The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood. Based on a year Simon spent embedded with the city homicide squad, Homicide provided the basis of the NBC drama of the same name. The Wire, which aired for five seasons on HBO, made Simon a pop culture icon. The show presents a dystopic vision of an American city, Baltimore, through a portrait of its most endemic problems: gangs, drugs, broken education and political systems, and a corrupt and incompetent news media. His most recent show, Treme, takes place is post-Katrina New Orleans. Simon has contributed to Lucky Peach magazine.

David Chang is the executive chef and owner of five restaurants, including Momofuku Noodle Bar, Momofuku Ssäm Bar, Momofuku Ko, Milk Bar, and Má Pêche, all in New York City and Momofuku Seiōbo in Sydney, Australia. A three-time James Beard Foundation winner, Chang has two Michelin stars and numerous accolades including GQ’s “Man of the Year.” But it’s a devoted following that encompasses serious eaters – many of them chefs themselves – smitten critics, and celebrities that makes the restaurants phenomenally successful and the chef himself a rockstar in the culinary world. His publications include Momofuku, a cookbook, and a quarterly print journal with Peter Meehan called Lucky Peach (McSweeney’s).